I'd like to brush up on my knowledge of Shell scripting with Bash for a job interview Monday.
What would the preferred book be for someone with an existing knowledge looking to review the topic?
+2
A:
bash Cookbook, by Carl Albing, JP Vossen & Cameron Newham
O'Reilly ISBN 10: 0-596-52678-4
pavium
2009-11-27 21:45:00
"The Linux Documentation Program"... Is it horrible that I thought it might have stood for "Too Long, Didn't Print"?
Matthew Scharley
2009-11-27 21:50:30
I had to unlearn most of what I learned from the ABS.
guns
2009-11-27 21:59:45
@guns: it's really not that bad!
ennuikiller
2009-11-27 22:02:10
@ennnuikiller: not that bad, if you're not good enough a shell scripter to notice the horrible flaws and bad practices. Which is EXACTLY why it should not be used for newbies as a learning resource.
lhunath
2009-11-27 22:25:21
@Ihunath well its not as if I studied the whole document. The times I needed a reference source it seemed adequate. While shell scripting is not my primary language I seem to get by pretty well :)
ennuikiller
2009-11-28 02:14:41
+9
A:
The best reference for someone with some experience would be BashGuide by Lhunath.
It teaches current best practices for modern Bash shells:
- using
[[ $var ]]vs[ $var ]ortest $var - proper use of grouping techniques:
{ command1 && command2; } || command3 - use of here strings:
cmd <<< foovsecho foo | cmd - parameter expansions:
var=foobar; echo ${var//o/O}=>fOObar - brace expansions:
for i in {1..10}(instead of usingseqorjot) - solid basics:
if grep foo filevsif [[ $(grep foo file) -eq 0 ]]
It would be wise to avoid the often-referenced Advanced Bash Scripting guide; most of the examples there are misleading or antiquated.
BashPitfalls and BashFAQ are also particularly helpful if you are already very familiar with POSIX Bourne shell scripting.
Finally, if you're not averse to concise documentation, go straight to my favorite source: man bash. It's quite readable if you've been using a shell for some time. And if you need to maintain compatibility with older versions of bash, Chet Ramey keeps a version history here: http://tiswww.case.edu/php/chet/bash/CHANGES
guns
2009-11-27 21:52:42
didn't know the advanced bash scripting guide was misleading or antiquated! There are some typos, but overall I think it is a good resource!
ennuikiller
2009-11-27 21:58:46
Well, I remember that it encouraged overuse of temp files, did not regularly quote variables, and never concisely explained how to elegantly work around subshells.I agree that it wasn't bad ~1999, but bash has progressed quite a bit since then. The entire guide needs to be overhauled in a consistent modern style.
guns
2009-11-27 22:06:31
+1 for Greg's BashGuide, +1 for ABS "misleading or antiquated", +1 for BashPitfalls and BashFAQ, another +1 if you had mentioned `$()` vs. backticks, another if you had mentioned http://mywiki.wooledge.org/ParsingLs
Dennis Williamson
2009-11-28 00:18:36
Beside the fact that the BashGuide is Lunath's - yes, this is a really sane answer. There is hope, between all the bad code you find :)
TheBonsai
2009-11-29 14:49:51
A:
There's nothing like going directly to the Bash maintainer.
Here's his FAQ.
And an online version of the info file.
Dennis Williamson
2009-11-28 00:23:27
A:
I used this as a reference book when I learned BASH scripting. I thought it was extremely useful, even after the learning period
inspectorG4dget
2009-11-28 02:46:32
A:
I usually wouldn't suggest man pages, however in this case typing 'man bash' not a bad option especially worth a quick read before you do a technical test. I'd also recommend the o'reilly sed & awk book (http://www.amazon.com/sed-awk-2nd-Arnold-Robbins/dp/1565922255), as I guess if you're working in bash, awk will be frequently used. Also http://www.vectorsite.net/tsawk.html is a good place a start with awk.
Jamie
2009-11-28 20:49:17